When the Gazelle was first introduced to Germany the squadron I was on had an average serviceability of 35/37%. There was a major improvement when an ex D&T squadron sergeant mech was posted in (Alex Garty) who actually knew something about the aircraft..
When we went to Ireland in 1976 and spares suddenly became available, seviceability went into the 95%+ bracket.
Blaming the aircraft is akin to a poor workman blaming his tools.
Lack of expertise and poor spares procurement are major factors in this issue.
For comparison an Airline would aim for about 97%+ excluding C checks.
The civil operator I currently work for has had at least one aircraft grounded for spares issues more or less continually since late December. That would give us a maximum serviceability of 75% during the last three months and it is clearly less than that.
We are fortunate to have very experienced type engineers so this is purely down to spares.
Last edited by ericferret; 16th February 2008 at 11:50.